1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for creating markers on scroll bars of a graphical user interface. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for referencing locations of interest within a digital document using a scroll bar of a user interface, comprising creating graphical halt and pause points on the scroll bar at the locations of interest.
2. Related Art
Computers are a regular part of the everyday lives of many people. Computers are typically used in one""s home as well as one""s business or work place. A computer monitor is one of the main interfaces that is used to enable a person to interact with the computer. The computer monitor has a display screen for displaying information, usually in graphical format, to the user. Input devices, such as a mouse and a keyboard, are also devices that are used to interface a user with the computer.
The junction between a user and the computer is commonly called a user interface. A user interface is typically in the form of a set of commands and menus through which a user communicates with the computer. A command-driven interface is one in which a user enter commands. A menu-driven interface is one in which a user selects command choices from various menus displayed on the screen. The user interface is one of the most important parts of a computer system because it determines how easily a user can make the program do what the user wants. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that use windows, icons, and pop-up menus have become standard on personal computers.
One common component of the graphical user interface is the scroll bar. The scroll bar typically appears on the side or bottom of a window of the user interface and allows a user slidable viewing control over a digital document within the user interface""s viewable frame. The scroll bar is intended to make it easy for the user to graphically move quickly to locations within the document. Also, most scroll bars have arrows at either end, a gray or colored area in the middle, and a scroll box (or elevator) that moves from one end to the other to reflect the position within the document. Clicking on the arrows causes the document to scroll in the indicated direction. In operation, a user can move to any part of a document by dragging the scroll box to the corresponding part of the scroll bar. Many computer systems support both horizontal and vertical scroll bars.
However, although scroll bars allow users to quickly scroll up and down through several pages of a document to view data, they are lacking in practicality in some areas. One example where scroll bars have limited practical use is with a typical digital spreadsheet or database that has hundreds or thousands of row entries. In this example, it is assumed that the very first row holds the xe2x80x9cnetxe2x80x9d data, which typically is a location where the user will want to visit often. Also, there may be points of interest within the spreadsheet that the user would like visit and alter data, then see how that affects the net data on the first row. These other points of interest can be spread out between hundreds or thousands of row entries.
Although the user can easily visit the first row by clicking on the scroll box and sliding it all the way to the top, it can be a difficult task to scroll through hundreds or thousands of row entries to find a certain point of interest. Namely, to get to a point of interest in the body of the spreadsheet, a user must patiently use the arrow keys on the keyboard or click on the scroll box and slide it while looking for the point of interest. This can be a very tedious and time consuming task, especially with documents that have several hundreds of pages or digital spreadsheets with thousands of row entries that have similar data formats in each row entry.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for reliably locating certain designated points within a digital document by creating markers on scroll bars of a graphical user interface that relate to user defined points of interest. What is also needed is a system and method for easily referencing locations of interest within a digital document using markers that control the user""s movement along the scroll bar by pausing and halting the scroll box as it is moved along the scroll bar.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention is embodied in a system and method for creating markers on scroll bars of a graphical user interface. Basically, the present invention allows users to reference locations of interest within a digital document using typical scroll bars of a user interface by creating graphical halt and pause points on the scroll bar at the locations of interest.
In general, the present invention includes a user interface with a digital document of an application being used by a user. The application has at least a vertical scroll bar for moving from one location to another within the digital document. The scroll bar includes a scroll box, end points and stub points. The end points represent the top and bottom portions of the digital document. The stub points represent reference points within the digital document that are predefined by the user or the application and located directly on the scroll bar. The stub points function to either stop or pause the movement of the scroll box as the user moves it along the scroll bar.
In particular, there are three types of stub points, a firm stub point, a semi-firm stub point and a dissolving stub point. The firm stub point is used as a permanent reference point. The semi-firm stub point is used as a semi-permanent reference point. The dissolving stub point is used as a temporary reference point. The dissolving stub point dissolves or is automatically removed after the scroll bar contacts the dissolving stub point, thus, it is a temporary stub point. All three stub points are predefined either by the user or the application as a point of interest.
The present invention as well as a more complete understanding thereof will be made apparent from a study of the following detailed description of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawings and appended claims.